Anaiis Cisco is a filmmaker from Brooklyn and an assistant professor of moving image production at Smith College. She writes and directs narratives that explore the emotional journey of Black characters in nuanced story worlds, highlighting the experiences of underrepresented racial, ethnic, queer, and gendered identities. Cisco’s short film, Breathless (2017), inspired by the murder of Eric Garner, has won numerous awards and has screened at various film festivals. Her following short, GYRL (2018), is a portrait of a preteen African American girl struggling with an abusive father. Currently circulating the queer film festival circuit, her thesis film, Drip Like Coffee (2019), explores Black womanhood, desire, and space, while rendering the Black female body as fluid. Cisco is adapting this short into her first feature film.
Cisco most recently produced and directed six experimental shorts for the Neo-soul legend, Jill Scott’s 2020 Who is Jill Scott? 20th Anniversary Tour.
